COVID-19 Recovery Appeal

The access to eye care in the region has been drastically affected by COVID-19.

Please help us raise £500,000.

The situation here is extremely challenging. Can you imagine needing treatment for degenerating sight but unable to access it? This has been the reality facing our patients in the Palestinian territories since March 2020. Many suffer from eye conditions that require urgent treatment or risk the prospect of permanent sight loss. Due to the first lockdown, 18,000 patients have missed out on appointments and 1,200 major sight-saving surgeries have been cancelled.

These people need your help like never before.

“As restrictions are lifted, we are facing a race against time to deliver the eye care the Palestinian population relies on us for,” says Dr. Bashar Jaber, Consultant Oculoplasty Specialist at the Eye Hospital in East Jerusalem. “We put ourselves at risk of COVID -19 infection every day. We are the only thing standing between them and permanent sight loss.”

A £1.5m deficit in 2020 and a growing funding gap.

There is another facet to this reduction in treatment. The funds received from patients and their insurers directly subsidizes vulnerable patients who cannot afford our life-changing treatments. We have lost over £1.5m worth of much needed patient-income. “We reduced our deficit significantly by having our workforce take unpaid leave in May of this year as well as implementing significant reductions in expenditure,” says Finance Director Peter Khoury. We are still facing a deficit of at least £1.5million. “This is not a sustainable long-term scenario – particularly as we prioritize our high-risk patients.”

The potential second national lockdown in the region will increase our deficit for 2020.

Additionally, accessing patient insurance contributions from the Palestinian Ministry of Health has not been possible due to the twin factors of COVID-19 and the heightened political situation. With no immediate sign of change in sight, the Eye Hospital needs urgent funding to enable us to reach vulnerable patients like never.

Your support has never been more vital.

More than 60% of our patients are from the most vulnerable groups of the Palestinian society, including refugees who cannot meet the costs of treatment themselves.

With our iron-clad commitment to never turn away vulnerable patients who need our help, we turn to you, our loyal supporters, to help us raise vital funds between now and the end of this year. It’s an immense task, but we want to raise a total of £500,000 to offset an anticipated £1.8 million deficit. Can you help?

By donating today, you will ensure our most urgent operational needs are funded, such as staff sponsorship, procurement of crucial medicines and medical supplies, and covering the cost of surgeries for our patients. Your donation will enable us to continue treating patients regardless of ethnicity, religion or ability to pay.

With your support all things are possible.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all our supporters around the world who have already sent their good wishes and donations towards our life-changing work. We hope that reaching out to you today will help cover the funding gap and reach more patients in the coming months. We desperately don’t want to turn any patient away in these challenging times. We also want to protect our staff and keep them employed during a time of both political change and uncertainty. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for being so generous and sharing kindness at a time when it is needed more than ever.

Please donate and specify COVID recovery as your appeal.

Any support, big or small, will make a massive difference to everyone benefiting from our life changing work – thank you.

• £15 could buy 3 bottles of post operational drops Oflox and Pred forte
• £50 could buy 9 bottles of drops for Lensectomy
• £20 would buy 4 bottles of eye drops
• £100 would fund laser treatment for diabetic retinopathy or 1 box of Tephines & punches, ophthalmic surgical instruments needed to perform corneal graphs, corneal transplants and glaucoma surgery
• £200 would buy 4 phaco packs, which are necessary in cataract operations
• £2000 would pay for a set of lenses to examine children in the Paediatric Clinic or a specialist patient examination stretcher in our diabetic retinopathy treatment room
• £15,000 or greater would contribute towards a nurse salary for a year or buy essential medical equipment